Wedding Workshops are a relatively new concept, but one that is fast growing across the UK and America. They are specifically designed to bridge the gap between the DIY Bride and the Professional Wedding Planner. Most workshops offer affordable group planning help and inspiration in a simple format that allows Brides, Grooms and anyone else involved in the planning to come along and learn all of the basics in a few hours.
I think this concept is going to grow and grow and will in a few years become second nature to newly engaged couples. Much like attending ante-natal classes to prepare for the arrival of a new baby, which allows you to learn everything in a short space of time in a supportive group environment as opposed to spending hours looking online and in endless books.
It has been estimated that planning a wedding takes 250 hours. On top of this planning a wedding requires diligent research, patience, extreme diplomacy, super organisational skills and a good understanding of finance to keep everything on track. Wedding Planning Workshops can cut down this planning time drastically because the bulk of research has been done for you and you are provided with a concise set of options.
The other key advantage of a wedding workshop is that the facilitator will share all of their skills and experience with you as well as offering tips, inspiration and tools to organise and simplify the planning process. Our How 2 I Do Wedding Planning Workshops run regularly in Bristol and show couples firstly all of the elements that go into planning a wedding and then timescales of when they need to be completed by.
We then move on to our interactive budgeting tool that shows you how to allocate out your budget to afford everything. This in combination with our money saving tips could knock thousands of a typical wedding budget and mean couples can sometimes afford their dream day with just a few simple compromises like making some elements themselves. More importantly we also tell people where not to cut their budget as some things such as photography should never be done yourself.
We also cover what to look for in a venue and key questions to ask when attending a viewing. Our planning pack provides a list of 30 great local venues in the Bristol and Somerset area. Our workshops also cover how to make your wedding really stand out by giving couples loads of options for entertainment and food and drink so they can try something other than the traditional 3 course meal and Church organist if they want a more individual approach.
Our couples also get a planning pack to take home that summarises the workshop and lists local suppliers. It can also be used to store their other planning documents. They also get a disc with the interactive planning tools to organise their budget and planning timescales. So if you want to find out more about How 2 I Do Wedding Planning Workshops then please contact me by email steph@how2ido.co.uk or give me a call on 07725 656682. Alternatively pop along to http://www.how2ido.co.uk/.
Steph
Showing posts with label wedding budgets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wedding budgets. Show all posts
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
Thursday, 2 June 2011
How to have Happy Bridesmaids
Bridesmaids are a big part of your Big Day. You probably have selected your closest friends or Sister or like me had some hard decisions to make about who your Bridesmaids are if you have an extended group of friends from childhood and University as well as family to consider. Unfortunately my budget didn't stretch to the full 11 adult bridesmaids so I opted for family and one friend who I had lived with through University and up until we both moved in with our then Boyfriends and now Husbands.
Picking your Bridesmaids can be tricky but picking their dresses can be trickier still. Adult Bridesmaids will probably set you back about £200 to £250.00 each by the time you have bought a dress, shoes, a gift and a bouquet and that doesn't even cover any hair and make up. Of course you can do it a lot cheaper if you can find dresses on the high street or in sales. Great High Street options are Monsoon or Coast, which both have regular sales. This dove grey Kipp Dress from Monsoon is £110.00 from www.monsoon.co.uk and is very elegant with it's soft draping and embellished neck and waist.
With adult Bridesmaids it's nice to have a consistent theme or colour but to allow them to express some individuality. Also it's essential to consider that Bridesmaids come in different shapes and sizes and some may not feel comfortable in short, strapless or low cut. One great idea I have seen recently is an innovative design from Two Maids that means that all of your Bridesmaids can have the same dress but wear it in 15 totally different ways from strapless, backless, halter, cap sleeves or one shoulder.
These dresses can be bought in Bristol from the Mews, Clifton www.themewsclifton.co.uk. You can also buy a matching bandeau to go underneath for a more modest look, which is great for curvier girls. They even work on pregnant Bridesmaids too thanks to their flowing silk jersey design. They also make ties to match all of the colours for a complete look for the guys too. The Photos below courtesy of Two Birds at the Mews Clifton, show the full length dress with two of the 15 options.
If you are having little Bridesmaids Monsoon Girl has some lovely dresses like this Audrey Butterfly one for £46.00 show below. For Brides on a tighter budget it's worth checking out BHS for a range of coordinating dresses and little waistcoats and cravats for any page boys.
As it's the tradition in the UK that Bridesmaids don't pay for their dresses but get to keep them it's well worth getting them something that they will wear again.
Monday, 21 March 2011
Where to Start Planning your Day
So you're engaged...Congratulations! I bet you can't wait to start all the fun stuff like looking at dresses and venues, but hang on there a moment because there's a few things you should do first if you want everything to go to plan.
The first thing you need to do is think about roughly when you want to get married and decide whether it's in 6 months or 6 years and whether it's in Summer, Winter, Spring or Autumn. Next you need to make a list of everyone you would ideally like to invite and get a ballpark figure as planning a wedding for 50 people is a very different matter to one for 150.
So, you've decided to get married in May next year and invite about 60 guests. What comes next? You really need to pin down your budget at this point as this will dictate all of your planning. To do this you need to look at funding options from savings to loans and help from families. Try not to overstretch yourselves as you may have the day of your dreams, but you really don't want to still be paying for it when you have been married a few years and need to save for other big purchases like buying a house or kitting out a nursery.
Once you have a budget figure you can work out what you can afford for your venue as this and your food will be your largest areas of spending. You can find venues online, in wedding magazines and from recommendations from friends. Make a shortlist and visit three or four before committing to your final choice. Make sure to take a list of questions to ask the venue and don't be afraid to haggle over prices.
If you have a tight budget there's loads of areas where you can reduce your spending and our How 2 I Do wedding planning workshops are full of tips and ideas to keep your budget on track. Here's a few we've decided to share with you, because we're nice like that...
The first thing you need to do is think about roughly when you want to get married and decide whether it's in 6 months or 6 years and whether it's in Summer, Winter, Spring or Autumn. Next you need to make a list of everyone you would ideally like to invite and get a ballpark figure as planning a wedding for 50 people is a very different matter to one for 150.
So, you've decided to get married in May next year and invite about 60 guests. What comes next? You really need to pin down your budget at this point as this will dictate all of your planning. To do this you need to look at funding options from savings to loans and help from families. Try not to overstretch yourselves as you may have the day of your dreams, but you really don't want to still be paying for it when you have been married a few years and need to save for other big purchases like buying a house or kitting out a nursery.
Once you have a budget figure you can work out what you can afford for your venue as this and your food will be your largest areas of spending. You can find venues online, in wedding magazines and from recommendations from friends. Make a shortlist and visit three or four before committing to your final choice. Make sure to take a list of questions to ask the venue and don't be afraid to haggle over prices.
If you have a tight budget there's loads of areas where you can reduce your spending and our How 2 I Do wedding planning workshops are full of tips and ideas to keep your budget on track. Here's a few we've decided to share with you, because we're nice like that...
- Ask your guests to donate towards your honeymoon for your wedding gift
- Instead of a toastmaster ask your Best Man or venue Wedding Coordinator to make announcements
- Ask your married friends to lend you a veil as your something borrowed as they can cost hundreds to buy and you will only wear it for a few hours
- Use flowers that are in season or grown your own to keep costs down
- Use film students via http://www.schoolyweds.com/ to film your wedding video and you'll get future talent at affordable prices
Wednesday, 19 January 2011
Weddings: Size matters!
When you get married it's great to share your wedding day with your friends and family, but before you casually mention your wedding to Bob from Accounts or your whole Sunday football team, it's important to think seriously about numbers.
The average UK wedding now costs in excess of £20,000 and a large proportion of that will be made up with your food and drink budget. You will need to allow approximately £50.00 per head for a day guest at your wedding. This should cover welcome drinks, food, wine, toast drinks and evening food. However, some upmarket venues may charge closer to this sum just for a three course dinner.
If you choose to invite all of your friends, everyone from work, friends from sports teams and your Parents friends you could easily reach 150 people. Before you know it that's £7500 just on food and drink alone and if your total budget is £10,000 it's not going to stretch to cover venue hire, entertainment, wedding clothing, ceremony fees, transportation, rings, accommodation and all of the other endless costs related to your wedding.
So how do you keep numbers in check? Firstly make a list of everyone you would like to invite and see what figure you reach. To have a wedding with a budget below £10000, you ideally want to keep to 50-60 day guests, with another 20 or so guests arriving for the disco.
Evening guests will only cost you the price of any evening food you arrange, normally around £10-15 per head and you can often only cater for 80% of guests for evening food as many will have eaten a big meal before they arrive.
If your list is on the larger side, you may have to be a bit ruthless to keep your budget on track. A good way to cut guests is to create some simple rules such as only inviting people that you have seen in the last year prior to getting engaged or only inviting work colleagues that you have socialised with outside of work.
Obviously family are a bit more complicated and you may need to discuss with your Parents who you need to invite. Perhaps stick to immediate family, Grandparents, Uncles and Aunts and first Cousins only. You may need to have some honest conversations with your Parents if they wish to invite twenty of their closest friends.
Another good trick is to think how you would feel if the person you are considering inviting got married and you weren't invited to their wedding. If you wouldn't be that bothered, the chances are that they won't mind not being invited to yours. What do you do if you try all of this and still have 200 people? Well you can always get married abroad and see if your Great Aunt Edna, twice removed still wants to come!
For more useful help planning your wedding, visit http://www.how2ido.co.uk/ to learn about our fun, affordable wedding planning workshops in Bristol
The average UK wedding now costs in excess of £20,000 and a large proportion of that will be made up with your food and drink budget. You will need to allow approximately £50.00 per head for a day guest at your wedding. This should cover welcome drinks, food, wine, toast drinks and evening food. However, some upmarket venues may charge closer to this sum just for a three course dinner.
If you choose to invite all of your friends, everyone from work, friends from sports teams and your Parents friends you could easily reach 150 people. Before you know it that's £7500 just on food and drink alone and if your total budget is £10,000 it's not going to stretch to cover venue hire, entertainment, wedding clothing, ceremony fees, transportation, rings, accommodation and all of the other endless costs related to your wedding.
So how do you keep numbers in check? Firstly make a list of everyone you would like to invite and see what figure you reach. To have a wedding with a budget below £10000, you ideally want to keep to 50-60 day guests, with another 20 or so guests arriving for the disco.
Evening guests will only cost you the price of any evening food you arrange, normally around £10-15 per head and you can often only cater for 80% of guests for evening food as many will have eaten a big meal before they arrive.
If your list is on the larger side, you may have to be a bit ruthless to keep your budget on track. A good way to cut guests is to create some simple rules such as only inviting people that you have seen in the last year prior to getting engaged or only inviting work colleagues that you have socialised with outside of work.
Obviously family are a bit more complicated and you may need to discuss with your Parents who you need to invite. Perhaps stick to immediate family, Grandparents, Uncles and Aunts and first Cousins only. You may need to have some honest conversations with your Parents if they wish to invite twenty of their closest friends.
Another good trick is to think how you would feel if the person you are considering inviting got married and you weren't invited to their wedding. If you wouldn't be that bothered, the chances are that they won't mind not being invited to yours. What do you do if you try all of this and still have 200 people? Well you can always get married abroad and see if your Great Aunt Edna, twice removed still wants to come!
For more useful help planning your wedding, visit http://www.how2ido.co.uk/ to learn about our fun, affordable wedding planning workshops in Bristol
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